1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to construction and, more particularly, to a method and a kit for forming an alcove in a rough opening for a standard door which may be mirrored forming a mirrored viewing arrangement which includes a guide for facilitating construction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various structures are known in the art for providing mirrored viewing arrangements and dressing areas in retail stores and residential homes. Such structures are generally either provided as free standing structures or permanent structures and integrated into the room construction. Examples of free standing structures are disclosed in German Patentshrift 410070 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 831,549; 1,078,502 and 1,647,031. Such free standing structures are generally used in temporary or remodeling applications where sufficient floor space exists. However, such free standing structures are generally not used in new construction. In new construction, mirrored viewing areas are generally integrated into the construction. Moreover, due to the floor space requirements of such free standing structures, among other things, their use in residential housing is impractical.
Examples of permanent viewing area structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 226,362; 1,596,952; 2,807,192 and 2,949,059. Such permanent structures are either custom formed or adapted to be disposed in standard finished door openings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 226,362 to Short discloses a custom formed viewing area. More specifically, Short discloses a walk-in type mirrored viewing area formed, for example, as a dressing room which includes four wall mirrors A, B, C and D. Mirrors A and C are permanently mounted, while mirrors B and D are pivotally mounted to provide simultaneous front and rear images of the subject within the viewing area. Although such an arrangement may provide a suitable viewing and dressing area, it requires a custom designed room, suitably dimensioned to carry the four mirrors.
Various other arrangements are known which do not require custom designed viewing rooms. Such arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,596,952; 2,807,192 and 2,949,059. These arrangements in general relate to specially designed doors that are adapted to be disposed in either a standard finished door opening or a standard finished closet door opening which include pivotally mounted mirror side panels, adapted to be swung out to a viewing position to provide a three-way mirror. When not in use, such pivotally mounted mirror side panels are placed in a normal position generally flush with the door to which they are attached.
More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 1,596,952 to Smith discloses a reversible door, pivotally mounted within a standard finished door frame. The reversible door includes an auxiliary frame 14 which allows the door to pivot about its midpoint relative to the longitudinal axis, defined by the pivot points 22 and 23. The front side of the door is formed as a plain paneled door. The reverse side of the door is provided with two pivotally mounted mirrored side panels 29 and 30. The mirrored side panels are formed with half of the width of the door to allow them to be placed flush against the door and secured thereto when not in use. In operation, when three-way mirror viewing is desired, the door is reversed and the side panels 29 and 30 are swung out. After use, the side panels 29 and 30 are returned to their normal position and secured in place. The entire door is then pivoted to the original position. Such an arrangement would be cumbersome to use in addition to being relatively expensive. Moreover, due to the half width of the side panels 29 and 30, only relatively limited three-way mirror viewing is possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,807,192 to Von Berg discloses a mirrored viewing arrangement which includes three slidably mounted closet doors 13, 14 and 15 adapted to be disposed in a standard finished closet door opening. The center door 14 is provided with a rigidly attached mirror 17. The outside doors 13 and 15 are provided with pivotally mounted door panels 18 and 19. In operation, the three doors 13, 14 and 15 are placed in a position to close the closet door opening. The pivotally mounted mirror panels 18 and 19 are then swung out to the desired viewing position. After viewing, the mirror panels 18 and 19 are secured to the doors 13 and 15. In addition to being cumbersome to use, the above arrangement can only be used with relatively large closet door openings, for example, 45"-96" finished door openings. Such an arrangement could not be used with walk-in closets which generally have smaller finished door openings, such as, 32" to 36" door openings.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,059 to Solimine discloses a mirrored door arrangement, adapted to be disposed in a standard door opening to provide three-way mirror viewing on both sides of the door. More specifically, the door includes pivotally mounted mirror panels 19, 33 and 41 hinged in such a way to provide a three-way mirror on each side of the door as best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 of the Solimine patent. Such an arrangement is relatively cumbersome to use. Additionally, such an arrangement is intended to be used in applications where three-way mirror viewing is desired in adjoining rooms. Accordingly, such an arrangement would not be practical in applications where three-way mirror viewing is only desired in a single room or multiple non-adjoining rooms.
The use of specially designed doors, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,596,952; 2,807,192 and 2,949,059 present problems in addition to those mentioned above. For example, swing-out door panels temporarily will require additional floor space not originally contemplated. Thus, when in the viewing position, such arrangements can affect the traffic patterns or placement of furniture, for example. Additionally, such specially designed doors would be relatively expensive.